it.
The best way to learn is to get a fellow who knows to show you. You need to practice a lot, or you will soon forget the knots. Use pieces of rope or cord and not messy bits of string or bootlaces!
On the previous page are useful knots which every Scout ought to know, and ought to use whenever he is tying string or rope.
To prevent the end of a rope from becoming frayed and unlaid you should whip it. This is done by wrapping thin string round it several times and finishing it off so that the ends do not show. There are several methods of doing this; the picture on page 94 shows an easy and efficient way.
We had no rope with us in West Africa, so we used strong creeping plants, and thin withes or long whippy sticks, which we made still more pliant or bendable by holding one end under foot and twisting the other round and round with our hands. Willow and hazel make good withes.
You cannot tie all knots with them, as with rope, but you can generally make a timber hitch.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS
PRACTICE
Hut Building
To live comfortably in camp a Scout must know how to make a bivouac shelter for the night, or a hut if he is going to be in camp for a long time.
What sort of shelter you put up depends on the country and weather.
Notice the direction from which the wind generally blows, and put the back of your shelter that way, with your fire in front of it. If you are going into camp where there are plenty of trees, and you have got the right to use them, then there are several types of shelters you may make.
A bivouac shelter is the simplest form of hut. Two upright stakes are driven firmly into the ground, with a ridge- pole placed in position along the tops. Against this a number of poles are made to lean from the windward side, with crossbars to support the branches, reeds, sods or twigs, or whatever is to form your roofing material.
For a single man this shelter can be made quite small, about 3 ft. high in front, 3 ft. wide and 6 ft. long. You build your fire about 4 ft. in front of this, and lie in it alongside your fire.
If the “shack” is for more than one man, you build it 5 t. or 6 ft. high in front, and 6 to 7 ft. deep, so that several fellows can lie alongside each other, feet to the fire.
A bivouac shelter is a simple hut, w hich you can make quickly.
Thatching Your Hut
When you start to thatch your framework., begin at the bottom and lay your roofing material layers, one above the other in the way that shingles are put on a roof. In this way you may make it watertight.
For thatching you can use thick evergreen branches, or grass, reeds, sods, bark or slabs of wood (called “shingles”), or small twigs of heather closely woven in.
It is generally advisable to lay a few branches and stout poles over the thatch when finished in order to keep it on if a gale springs up.
Other Huts
If you want to build a complete hut, you can make a lean-to from each side on the same ridge-pole. But the single lean-to, with its fire in front of it, is quite good enough for most people.
Another way to build a shelter hut is to lean a ridge-pole or backbone from the ground into the fork of a small tree about 5 ft. above the ground, the butt of the pole being 7 ft. to windward of the tree. Then put up a side pole leaning against this, and roof over in the same way as for a lean-
to.
Where you have no poles available you can do as the South African natives do—pile up a lot of brushwood, heather, etc., into a small wall made in semicircle to keep out the cold wind— and make your fire in the open part.
Zulus make their huts by planting a circle of long sticks upright in the ground. They then bend the tops towards the centre and tie them together. Next they weave whippy sticks horizontally in and out among the uprights until they have made a kind of circular bird-cage. This they cover with a straw mat, or thatch it, or weave straw in among the sticks. Sometimes a small hole is left at the top, to act as a chimney.
The Red Indians make their “teepee” by tying several long poles together in the form of a pyramid, and covering them with canvas or skins sewn together.
If your tent or hut is too hot in the sun, put blankets or more straw over the top. The thicker the roof, the cooler the tent is in summer. If the hut is too cold, make the bottom of the walls thicker, or build a small wall of sods about a foot high round the foot of the wall outside.
